Prostate cancer statistics

Prostate cancer is the 2nd most common cancer in men worldwide.

Latest prostate cancer data

Prostate cancer is the 2nd most commonly occurring cancer in men and the 4th most common cancer overall. There were more than 1.4 million new cases of prostate cancer in 2020.

The 10 countries with the highest rates of prostate cancer and the highest number of deaths from prostate cancer in 2020 are shown in the tables below.

ASR = age-standardised rates. These are a summary measure of the rate of disease that a population would have if it had a standard age structure. Standardisation is necessary when comparing populations that differ with respect to age because age has a powerful influence on the risk of dying from cancer.

Prostate cancer rates

This table shows global prostate cancer incidence in 2020. Guadeloupe had the highest rate of prostate cancer in 2020, followed by Martinique.

RankCountryNumberASR/100,000
World1,414,25930.7
1France, Guadeloupe722183.6
2France, Martinique659168.2
3Ireland4,503110.7
4Barbados279110.3
5Saint Lucia135103.2
6Estonia1,228102.1
7Puerto Rico2,742101.2
8Sweden10,949100.4
9France66,07099.0
10Bahamas20198.0

Prostate cancer deaths

This table shows global prostate cancer mortality in 2020. Zimbabwe had the highest rate of prostate cancer mortality in 2020, followed by Barbados.

RankCountryNumberASR/100,000
World375,3047.7
1Zimbabwe86841.7
2Barbados13740.3
3Haiti1,53340.2
4Zambia82340.1
5Jamaica84439.4
6Trinidad and Tobago40338.9
7Bahamas7236.3
8Dominican Republic2,22835.0
9Saint Lucia5432.6
10Côte d’Ivoire1,60029.5

What causes prostate cancer?

There is strong evidence that:

There is some evidence that:

  • higher consumption of dairy products might increase the risk of prostate cancer
  • diets high in calcium might increase the risk of prostate cancer
  • low plasma alpha-tocopherol concentration (vitamin E) might increase the risk of prostate cancer
  • low plasma (blood) selenium concentrations might increase risk of prostate cancer

> Read more about what can cause and what can protect against prostate cancer

Notes

The data on this page comes from the Global Cancer Observatory, owned by the World Health Organization/International Agency for Research on Cancer, and is used with permission. The cancer incidence figures and ASRs were compiled using the data available here (last accessed 23 March 2022). For queries about our cancer statistics please email the Research Interpretation team: ri@wcrf.org.